Did you know that Adolf Hitler was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize?

Hitler was nominated in 1939 by E.G.C. Brandt, member of the Swedish parliament. Brandt never intended for this to be seriously considered and the nomination was withdrawn in a letter dated 1 February 1939.

What made him perform this practical joke was his astonishment over the naive and gullible praise of the British Prime Minister Chamberlain (“Peace in Our Time”) who, in Brandt’s opinion, put the whole of Europe in danger by yielding ground to Hitler in Munich in September 1938 by accepting the incorporation of Bohemia in the Third Reich.

Brandt was left in shock when he realized that most people, including the media, didn’t get his irony. Many people even wrote him telegrams and letters to express their thanks and appreciation for his nominating Hitler.

It is also interesting to know that Hitler was chosen as Time magazine’s Man of the Year for 1938.

Time had chosen him as the man who “for better or worse” (as Time founder Henry Luce expressed it) had most influenced events of the preceding year.